


So Ketchup, It's Right

by benDghey (Jahgyong)



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Fast Food, Gen, Takes place during the SWIR era, ketchup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-04-30 23:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jahgyong/pseuds/benDghey
Summary: "I'd like one of those classic burgers, please... withextra ketchup."





	So Ketchup, It's Right

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this [video](https://youtu.be/cN9Xhtb345w) lmao enjoy!

There was one hour left of work. Zack Merrick couldn’t wait to go home; it had been an exhausting seven hours so far. Every shift that he worked at Flyzik’s Burger House was tiring, but today was even more so for some reason. Maybe because there had been a lot of rude customers earlier in the day, or perhaps because it was Friday today AKA one of the busiest days of the week in the retail industry. Whatever the cause was, Zack was just glad that his shift was almost over. Absentmindedly toying with the pepper shaker, he wondered if it would be possible to start cleaning up early. There was no need for him to voice this request, however, because he knew that his colleague Jack would begin whining about it soon enough. Unfortunately, before Jack was given the chance to ask about closing shop early, Zack caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. It was… a customer. Dammit.

“Hey, what can I get for you today?” Alex, who was working till, asked. Zack noted that his buddy sounded just as tired as he felt. Pretending to be pre-occupied with the salt shaker now, he watched the scene unfold at the front-end.

“Hello, young man,” the customer, a seemingly-spry elderly man, greeted Alex mildly.

Jack, who was on grill duty until closing, leaned over to Zack and hissed, “How’s he that awake at this time of the night?” 

Zack’s lips twitched into a small smirk. “I don’t know.”

“I’d like one of those classic burgers, please,” the customer said now, “with extra ketchup.”

Extra _ketchup_ ??? Was Zack really hearing this? He stopped fiddling with the salt shaker because, _damn,_ he had to know more. Not even bothering to be subtle anymore, he blatantly began staring, his eyes zeroing in on what he could see of the customer’s face over Alex’s head. Of all the months he’d worked here, nobody had ordered extra ketchup before.

Beside him, Jack snickered. “Who the fuck orders extra _ketchup_?”

“Ketchup’s good,” Zack said without looking at his friend, who, along with Alex and another co-worker Rian, was also his bandmate. Started by Jack and Alex, the four had formed a band together back in high school; they were working at this hellish place until All Time Low became enough of a name to support them full-time.

“That everything?” Alex asked, punching in the order, _w/ extra ketchup_ , in the register.

“Yes, that will be all,” the elderly gentleman said with a smile.

“Okay. That will be $2.75 and here’s your order number,” Alex said, handing the man a plastic card.

Zack didn’t have to read the words that had sprung up on the order monitor overhead; he had heard it all. _Extra ketchup._ He watched the customer pay and leave to find a table as he grabbed a couple of buns from the buns compartment. While waiting for Jack to finish cooking the patty, he pondered if there was enough ketchup on hand for this once-in-a-blue-moon order. At that moment, Alex turned to face him and the two made eye contact, Alex raising his eyebrows and grinning. Zack gave a nod in understanding, then moved his attention back to his own station.

“It’s all yours, Zacky,” Jack said cheerily a few moments later, sliding a toasty patty Zack’s way. “Make sure to load it up.”

“I will,” Zack replied, fighting back a smile but failing. This was going to be _good._ He situated the patty atop the bottom bun before reaching for the ketchup bottle. Immediately, Zack knew that there wasn’t enough ketchup in the bottle to meet the requirement for this order, but he sure as hell was going to _try._

Since there didn’t seem to be any more new customers, Jack proceeded to watch Zack now. Fuck cleaning the grill. Up front, Alex had the same idea; he wandered over to where Zack and Jack were, eager to see the monstrosity that would ensue.

“Pile that shit on,” he goaded his generally-quiet friend, exchanging mischievous glances with Jack.

Zack was way ahead of him, squeezing the ketchup bottle as tightly as he could. A laugh that couldn’t be stopped escaped from his mouth as he kept loading up the burger with copious amounts of ketchup. That man asked for extra ketchup, so he was getting _extra ketchup._ His two friends laughed as well on either side of him as some strange soundtrack started playing in the background. Clearly, Jack had slipped his own mixtape into the CD player in the backroom again despite being told by several managers not to. However, Jack Barakat was not one for the rules… and today, Zack wasn’t either.

Hearing the little chuckles and Jack’s exclamation of “That’s looking sick, dude!” from the other station, Rian Dawson abandoned his position at the drive-thru to check up on his oft-immature pals. “What’s going on?” he asked as he neared the trio, despite already suspecting what was happening.

Knowing that Zack was too busy to answer, Alex piped up in his place, speaking in a low voice: “This one customer… he ordered extra ketchup… and Zack…” he didn’t end up finishing his sentence, his words being taken over by snickers. Rian didn’t need to know the rest of the sentence, anyway.

“Zack,” the drummer said, peering at his friend and struggling to hide the laugh in his tone, “don’t you think that’s a bit _too_ much ketchup, though?”

“No,” Zack answered, still applying ketchup. There was never too much ketchup, and even the plastic bottle that it was contained in agreed. Zack had thought that the bottle would empty after a couple of squirts; he was pleasantly surprised that it was still going strong.

Finally, after what felt like half an hour but in reality, was only about five minutes, Zack calmly set down the bottle and the apparently-infinite amount of ketchup that it housed. There was definitely enough ketchup to have continued, but Zack had reminded himself that the customer was probably hungry. Not to mention, that epic soundtrack (that Zack wouldn’t admit out loud) had ended and was no longer accentuating his workmanship. The bassist and his friends marvelled the masterpiece before them: a simple burger, consisting of one patty and too much ketchup for their manager Flyzik’s liking.

“This is a piece of art,” Jack commented as Zack plated the said-work of art. Rian excused himself to return to the drive-thru, though he would never be able to unsee what he had just witnessed.

“The customer will like it,” Alex added with a playful edge to his voice, eyeing the foot of ketchup that had been added to the burger. Okay, a foot was an exaggeration, but there was so much damn ketchup on that one little burger.

Zack observed as Alex transferred the plate onto a tray, then carried the tray to the front counter.

“Number 2,” Alex said into the microphone, giving up on trying to sound serious. How could he when Zack had made _that_ fucking thing?

Zack didn’t tear his gaze away from the front-end, his eyes widening in anticipation as the elderly gentleman from earlier rose from his table by the window to make his way over to Alex. Jack rested his arm on Zack’s shoulder briefly before deciding that he no longer cared to stay in his lane; the lanky young man walked out of the kitchen to join Alex at the till. Rian, just like the rest of them, was desperate to see the customer’s reaction too, but he knew better and thus, stayed where he was, wistfully hoping that the customer would at least be vocal so he could listen to the complaints instead.

“Your order, sir,” Alex managed to say between giggles, pushing the tray forward.

“Enjoy your meal,” Jack said with a nod, a silly grin stretching across his face.

Zack inched closer to where his outgoing pals were because he wanted to hear the customer’s “feedback” on his burger-dressing skills. What he received for constructive criticism was the man leaning over to assess his order, his eyes furrowing into a glare behind his glasses.

“And what is _this?_ ” the patron near-spat, gesturing to Zack’s creation angrily.

“Your order, sir,” Alex repeated nonchalantly. “Extra ketchup, like you asked.”

“There is a foot of ketchup!” the gentleman raised his voice.

Jack and Alex looked at each other, the customer’s furious tone erasing the smug smirk off their faces.

“Yeah?” Jack said, turning back to the now-infuriated fellow. “Extra ketchup, right?”

Zack’s mood dropped. He suddenly wished he hadn’t done it. Over at the drive-thru, Rian now wished that he wasn’t there.

“I don’t want this garbage!” the customer snapped, his formerly-twinkling eyes now throwing knives Alex’s way. “Give me a refund!”

“Alright,” Alex said quietly, swiftly tapping at the register. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Get your manager here,” the elderly man demanded, his hands furling into fists. “This is unacceptable.”

Knowing that it was all _his_ fault, Zack whipped around and hurried to the backroom where Matt Flyzik had mentioned that he’d be filling out paperwork.

“Hey, Zack,” Flyzik glanced up when Zack burst into the room. “What’s up?”

“There’s a problem out there,” Zack said, still able to hear the customer ranting even at this distance. He knew that Flyzik was sucking in an inaudible breath alongside silently blaming Jack.

“Okay.” The head manager said shortly, rising from the table he was working at and striding out of the room before Zack could tell him that it wasn’t Jack’s fault. He immediately tailed after Flyzik; Jack had already received a few warnings for previous antics and Zack didn’t want his friend getting fired for this stupid shit that _he_ had done.

He arrived to the customer screaming at Alex and Jack about respect and Flyzik attempting to diffuse the chaos that had started all due to an order of _extra ketchup._ Hovering between the kitchen and ordering areas, he nervously watched as Flyzik somehow managed to calm the gentleman down on the promise of a _free meal on the next visit._ Although the guest hissed that there wouldn’t be a “next visit” from him, he thankfully exited the restaurant after that. Zack made his move then, as Flyzik had, as predicted, turned to Jack and Alex:

“It wasn’t them,” he said, crossing over to the trio. “It was me.”

Flyzik did a double-take, his eyes flicking from the duo at the till to Zack then back again. From his own station, Rian almost sighed in relief. Unfortunately for his co-workers but fortunately for him, he was safe.

“Really, guys?” Flyzik frowned. “Zack?”

“Yup.” Zack stopped meeting his manager’s eyes, his stare catching the unlit _open_ sign hanging from one of the windows. Somebody had had the sense to close the store amongst this turmoil, at least.

***

Although this situation was now amongst the dumbest in Flyzik’s records, Zack had been let off with just a warning. He was ordinarily a good worker; there was no need to fire him as long as this type of _incident_ never happened again. Now, the whole establishment had been cleaned and closed for the night.

“Too bad we had to throw it out,” Jack said ruefully as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.

“Yeah, that shit was great,” Alex agreed, putting his snapback on. “Wish we could’ve taken a pic of it.”

“What do you have there, Zack?” Rian said abruptly, making all eyes focus on Zack.

Zack chuckled, revealing a familiar burger from its heavily-ketchup stained wrapper.

“I thought you threw that out!” Jack blurted out, eyes wide. He, along with Rian and Alex, eyed Zack as their buddy shook his head, smiling.

“Nope.” Zack bit into the burger. Having been in his bag for the past hour, it had grown cold. It was also quite soggy. But most importantly, it was… ketchup. Heaps of it, but that was how Zack liked it. He loved ketchup and was glad that the customer from earlier did as well.

Alex blinked as Zack began munching away. Shrugging, he then grinned at his friends. “Guess we should go home now.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when i was forced to watch a bunch of mcdanks process videos for ops class, when that mayonaise video pops up on my youtube feed, and when i watch too many atl interviews at one in the morning (this was inspired by that one interview where Zack said that he really liked ketchup)...


End file.
